


Coming To Terms

by jedipati



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Original Trilogy
Genre: Brother-Sister Relationships, Darth Vader is dead but still very much important to the plot, Fluff, Gen, Minor Angst, No Beta We Get Thrown Down A Reactor Shaft Like Palpatine, Post-Star Wars: Return of the Jedi, Skywalker Family Feels (Star Wars)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-25
Updated: 2020-12-25
Packaged: 2021-03-11 05:20:22
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,925
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28319598
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jedipati/pseuds/jedipati
Summary: Leia is having a hard time with the family revelations- or more specifically, the big black Sith Lord in the family tree. Luke tries to help.
Relationships: Leia Organa & Luke Skywalker, Leia Organa & Luke Skywalker & Darth Vader
Comments: 3
Kudos: 49





	Coming To Terms

**Author's Note:**

> The bare bones of this story are from the year 2000. I found a file that hadn't been edited since Dec 1, 2000, and decided to see if anything could be salvaged of it. 
> 
> And, it turned out that the message from Luke to Leia could, but the frame around it needed changing. After some re-working, I have a Christmas gift for everyone!

Luke Skywalker was reading a report in the pilot ready room when his head jerked up. He could feel something…

“What is it, Luke?” Wedge Antilles asked. 

“I’m…” Luke frowned. “Not going to say.” After a moment, he recognized what he was feeling. Leia Organa. His sister Leia was in emotional turmoil. “Nothing that means we’re going to be in a fight soon,” he added to Wedge.

He had a suspicion he knew what the problem was. He turned off his pad and stowed it away. “I’ll be back,” he said. 

Wedge didn’t look convinced, but he didn’t try to follow Luke. 

Luke was grateful, he didn’t think Leia would want anyone else to see her like he was likely to find her, and especially because of why he suspected she was bleeding stress and worry and fear into the Force.

He headed through Home One toward personnel quarters, and found himself outside her quarters. He signaled for entry, and carefully reached out in the Force to let her know it was him.

The door opened, to a brightly lit room. He entered and found Leia huddled on her berth. “Can I sit down with you?” he asked.

She nodded, throat working as she tried to speak.

“What is it?” he asked her softly.

She didn’t answer, only allowed her head to thud down on his shoulder. He didn’t wince, only wrapped his arm around her. “Whatever it is, I’m here for you,” he said.

She inhaled sharply and didn’t respond verbally. She didn’t cry, but she was on the verge of it multiple times. Luke just held his sister close as she worked her way through this breakdown. 

Finally, when he felt that she was calmer, he sighed. “What happened?”

“How are you so calm?”

Luke frowned. “I don’t know what happened, Leia. Until I do…”

“You know. How can you take it so well. About our… our family. Our father.”

Luke’s jaw snapped shut. “I… I’ve had more time,” he admitted. “I… it was bad, after Bespin. I couldn’t… I think…” he took a deep breath as he remembered that time. “I didn’t. I wasn’t,” he swallowed. “I didn’t take it well at all.”

“I never noticed.”

“I did everything I could to hide it from everyone. I didn’t want anyone to know. I couldn’t let anyone know. I thought I’d be killed if anyone knew.” He held up a hand as she took a breath to speak. “I know, it’s stupid, but back then? I was not in any frame of mind to recognize it. I thought everyone would hate me if they knew. I hated myself for a while, I feared I would end up just like him.”

Luke sighed. “I was a mess, I just didn’t let anyone see. The only reason I know you’re having troubles is the Force.”

“Why didn’t I know about you?”

Luke smiled sadly. “I think you did, at least a little. You didn’t leave me alone much, you were always supportive- even though you didn’t know what I needed supporting for. You helped, a lot.”

“I’m glad,” Leia said. “I wish… I wish it wasn’t true.”

Luke nodded. “So do I,” he admitted. “I… I wish our father had been a better man. I know what happened on board the Death Star, but… he might have pulled himself out of the Dark, but he wasn’t a good man.”

“No, he wasn’t. He could have been but he… why did he chose evil?”

“I don’t know,” Luke admitted. “I don’t think Obi-Wan or Yoda did either.”

Leia sighed and leaned against him. “I wish I could have helped you more. If I’d known how bad it was, maybe I wouldn’t feel like I’m reacting badly.”

“I don’t think there is a way to react badly to this,” Luke said softly. “But… I have something that might help. Can I call Artoo in?”

Leia thought for a moment. “Alright,” she said.

Luke pulled out his comlink. “Hey, Artoo?” he said after he thumbed it over to Artoo’s frequency. “Can you come to Leia’s quarters?”

Artoo beeped over an affirmative and shut the link down.

Luke smiled and they waited. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~

Leia would never admit it, but she felt incredibly safe with her brother’s arms around her. She suspected he knew anyway. Luke felt calm in the Force, at peace with the knowledge they both had. She didn’t understand how he could be calm about it, even though he had more than year to come to terms with it, but he was.

The door beeped and she heard Artoo’s cheerful beeps beyond it.

“Come in, Artoo,” she called.

Artoo entered, still cheerful, but the droid paused as he saw them. His beeps scaled down to worry and concern.

Leia didn’t look at him, but she could hear the smile in Luke’s voice. “It’ll be fine, Artoo. Leia just needed some comfort.”

The droid rolled up to them and bumped gently against her legs. She smiled at him. “It’s just… a lot, Artoo.”

Artoo whistled a note of understanding. 

“Now, Artoo, you still have that message I recorded just after Bespin, right?” Luke asked.

Artoo’s response was a cautious affirmative. 

“Good,” Luke said. “Leia needs to see how I reacted to… to Bespin,” he added. “Play the message, Artoo.”

Artoo whistled lowly and turned on his holoprojector. It whirred for a moment before the holo formed. Luke, sitting in a cross-legged position, still wearing the medical clothing, his right hand still showing some work being done. 

“Leia,” the holo started. “I’m recording this three days after we returned to the Rebel fleet from Bespin. I… I need to record this, in case something happens. In case the worst happens.” The holo took a deep breath. “The worst may not be death, in this case.”

Luke shuddered against her, and she glanced at him. He wasn’t really watching the holo, just staring at it. Remembering, perhaps?

The holo continued. “I don’t… I don’t know how to say this, but… Vader wants me alive. He wants to make me like him. We thought that, we joked about it, but it’s true. And he… he told me…” the holo flickered for an instant and when it returned, Luke was in a different position. “Sorry, I had… I had to stop for a minute. I found out why Vader wants me alive, Leia. Why he tortured you to get me there. He wants to teach me. To Turn me into a Sith, not a Jedi. I… he wants me, because I’m… because he’s…” the holo took a deep breath and looked away. “He’s my father,” the Luke of more than a year ago whispered, almost too quiet for Artoo’s microphone to pick up. 

Luke looked at the holoprojector head on. “That’s why he wants me, Leia. He wants me because he thinks I’ll be like him. I don’t… I can’t be like him, he’s not…” He buried his head in his left hand. “I can’t…” he whispered. 

Luke, now, sighed and shifted. 

The holo Luke looked up after a moment. “Leia. He’s going to keep coming for me. I can’t let him catch me, but if he does… he won’t kill me. I can feel it. He’ll keep me, and try to Turn me, to make me become a monster just like him.”

The holo of Luke shuddered. “I can’t let that happen. I swear, I will do everything I can to keep him from taking me alive. I… I just… what if…” even in the holo, Leia could see Luke swallow. “What if I am like him? What do I do? How do I stop it? I can feel the Force. I’m… stronger now. But am I strong enough?”  
Leia shuddered as Luke described all her fears. They had to have been even worse for him, because he already had some training. 

“You didn’t,” she whispered to Luke.

“No,” Luke said. “But it was close.”

Leia returned her attention to the holo.

Luke had composed himself. “Leia, if you’re seeing this, then I am hopefully dead, but I may have been captured. If it’s the latter, then I will hold out as long as possible, but you have to warn others, tell them that I can’t be trusted if I return, and that you need to change all the passcodes and procedures. I’m sorry to put this on you, but I trust you to do it, no matter what.”

The holo took another deep breath. “I don’t know how long I can hold out against him, but it will be for as long as possible. Leia, there is an old Jedi Master named Yoda still alive. He’s on Dagobah, and he doesn’t have a ship to get off planet. Find him, and bring him back to the Alliance. If I’m captured, he won’t be safe either.”

The holo looked to the side. “I’m sorry to dump this on you, Leia, but you need to be warned. If I’m captured, don’t trust me if I return. If Vader frees me.” Luke’s holo smiled sadly. “May the Force Be With You, Leia.”

The holo shut down.

Luke, still sitting next to her, shuddered. “I feared that our Father would capture me and find a way to Turn me. And… he nearly did,” Luke admitted. “I nearly did Fall to the Dark Side, up there on the Death Star.”

“Luke,” Leia said softly. “I… I don’t know if I can train to be a Jedi. I don’t know if I’m strong enough not to turn out like him.”

Luke nodded. “I understand,” he said. “If I had known from the beginning… I probably would have felt the same way.”

Leia sighed. “Someday, maybe. But not now.”

“We’re probably too busy right now anyway, setting up the new government,” Luke admitted. “I want to teach you some meditation, though, it’ll help with emotions, but only if you want to.”

Leia considered it for a long moment. “I… I don’t know,” she said.

“If it makes you feel better, I found these mediations in the materials from the Guardians of the Whills. It’s not even for Force Sensitives. Just useful.”

Leia nodded. “I’ll think about it,” she said.

She felt his smile as he hugged her again. “That’s all I ask,” he said. “Artoo, thank you for showing Leia that.”

Artoo bumped against Leia’s legs again.

Leia rested her hand against his dome. “Thank you, Artoo. I am feeling better. It’s just hard, to realize that what you thought about your family is wrong.”

“Yes,” Luke agreed. “At least I got an amazing younger sister out of the deal.”

“You are not the older twin,” Leia objected instantly. She pulled away to scowl at him. “There is no way you are older. I was the one who was raised as royalty!”

Luke raised an eyebrow at her. “I’m the one who became a Jedi first,” he countered.

“Only because I got captured,” Leia objected. “I was the one who joined the Alliance first!”

“I joined as soon as I could,” Luke replied. “And then…”

Artoo whistled sharply, and the twins both turned to him. He scolded them both, though Leia thought it sounded like the droid was trying not to laugh either. 

Leia snorted, then started laughing. 

Yes, her father had been Darth Vader, but she had the best brother one could ever want. She’d come to terms with who her father was eventually, she was sure, but for now, she’d be happy Luke was her brother.

**Author's Note:**

> Merry Christmas to everyone who celebrates it. To everyone else, enjoy your Friday.


End file.
